Can u please tell me the difference in break and return statement .Please explain me with the piece of code as an example.
Break And Return Statement
break
is used to exit (escape) the for
-loop, while
-loop, switch
-statement that you are currently executing.
return
will exit the entire method you are currently executing (and possibly return a value to the caller, optional).
So to answer your question (as others have noted in comments and answers) you cannot use either break
nor return
to escape an if-else
-statement per se. They are used to escape other scopes.
Consider the following example. The value of x
inside the while
-loop will determine if the code below the loop will be executed or not:
void f()
{
int x = -1;
while(true)
{
if(x == 0)
break; // escape while() and jump to execute code after the the loop
else if(x == 1)
return; // will end the function f() immediately,
// no further code inside this method will be executed.
do stuff and eventually set variable x to either 0 or 1
...
}
code that will be executed on break (but not with return).
....
}